Emily Cihon and her household which inclues her husband Mitch, daughter Sophie, and their two canine, Chase and Sprint.
As a toddler, Emily Cihon all the time thought educating can be her skilled calling.
“I all the time needed to be a trainer or work with children, I even obtained an overhead projector as a birthday reward as a preteen so I may fake to show in my basement,” she says. “Nevertheless, I additionally needed to work within the medical subject, however nursing didn’t seem to be a great match.”
After abusing her voice because the captain of her highschool Colour Guard staff and in present choir, she was identified with vocal nodules throughout her freshman 12 months of school at Ohio College.
“I participated in speech remedy classes on the graduate pupil clinic which launched me to the sector of speech language pathology,” she says. “I found that pediatric speech language pathology was a potential profession, and thought this was an amazing mix of educating, working with youngsters and being in a medical subject.”
After being identified with vocal wire nodules in school, Emily participated in speech remedy classes which launched her to the sector of speech language pathology.
Emily joined Akron Youngsters’s in 2015, as a speech-language pathologist. Her every day duties primarily embrace evaluating and offering remedy for youngsters with speech and/or language issues.
“I get pleasure from working with toddlers with language delays and training their mother and father and caregivers to allow them to enhance their little one’s language at residence,” she says.
Her experience extends to helping sufferers with extreme speech or language issues find different modes of communication.
“Youngsters with extreme speech or language issues may have different methods to speak moreover verbally talking – that is referred to as Augmentative & Different Communication (AAC),” Emily explains.
AAC can embrace something from gestures, to writing, to pointing to pictures, to extra high-tech choices like utilizing an app on an iPad or a delegated communication gadget.
Throughout her day without work from work, Emily enjoys going for walks along with her household and two canine.
Emily says the perfect a part of her job is discovering issues that her sufferers get pleasure from.
“Mother and father of kiddos with delays or issues usually take into consideration what’s ‘incorrect’ with their little one,” she says. “I’m keen about discovering what a toddler can do and highlighting their strengths and progress over time, regardless of how small or sluggish it might appear.”
Outdoors of labor Emily enjoys studying, strolling her 2 canine, going to native craft gala’s and markets, holidays at Disney World, and being purposeful about planning day without work so she will “unplug.”
“Work/life stability is extraordinarily vital to me,” she says. “I lately transitioned to a part-time schedule to have the ability to spend extra time at residence with my daughter, who will likely be 1 this month.”
Changing into a dad or mum has influenced how Emily communicates along with her sufferers’ households.
“I attempt to not draw back from arduous conversations,” she says. “No dad or mum needs to listen to their little one has a speech or language dysfunction, however I’ve the distinctive alternative to help them via this troublesome time and see their little one’s strengths (not simply the weaknesses).”
A few of her happiest moments on the job come from the ‘firsts’ she has witnessed.
Sophie’s first journey to Disney in Dec. 2023.
“I’ve watched a mom tear up when her little one signed ‘extra’ for the primary time, or the look of shock/shock after I hear a toddler blurt out a phrase I haven’t heard them say earlier than,” she says. “I get goosebumps when a dad or mum tells me what their little one has been expressing or understanding for the primary time at residence.”
What initially drew Emily to Akron Youngsters’s was its distinctive care and supportive atmosphere. Nevertheless, it’s the sense of neighborhood, collaboration amongst colleagues, and the influence she makes that retains her rooted right here.
“I work alongside different speech language pathologists, occupational therapists and bodily therapists every single day,” she says. “I wouldn’t have the ability to present the care I do with out them. We help, educate and encourage one another every day. All of us need what’s finest for our sufferers and work collectively to make it occur.”
Akron Youngsters’s isn’t only a office for Emily; it’s a spot the place she feels she will actually make a distinction.
“I’ve met so many great sufferers and households, and I carry their tales and recollections with me. The connections I’ve made are why I turned a speech language pathologist,” she says. “It’s greater than a job – it’s a elementary a part of who I’m. I get to make a distinction every single day, and Akron Youngsters’s offers me the instruments to take action.”
Curious about working right here? Go to careers.akronchildrens.org.
